The Itch

Sunday, January 6th, 1003 A.B.

Today has been a complete disaster. Words alone cannot describe how things went wrong. The best I can say is that things did not go as planned…

*****

The day had started off on schedule; I woke up at seven a.m. and lightly shook Spike, waking him up from his sleep. Leaving him to get out of his basket, I headed downstairs and began preparing some daffodils, coffee, and hay-bacon for breakfast (the daffodils and coffee for myself, the hay-bacon for Spike). Setting our respective meals down on the table, I sat down and started eating my own, allowing the scent of hay-bacon to retrieve Spike from his post-slumber daze.

After we finished cleaning the dishes and completing the morning necessities, Spike and I set off for Ponyville Train Station with luggage in tow. It was 7:45 a.m. and the train to Canterlot would arrive in fifteen minutes.

*****

We were stuck waiting at the station for over three hours before the train finally arrived at 10:57 a.m. I asked a pair of departing passengers about the delay and they told me that one of the pulling stallions had torn a muscle or of the like two thirds the way to here. Thanking them, Spike and I entered the train and found our seats; he immediately jumping onto the seat next to the window. Rolling my eyes at his antics, I made myself comfortable next to him, and took out one of the books I brought along for the trip.

Soon enough, the carriage began to fill up as other passengers took their seats until the entire compartment was filled with ponies. Taking a look around, I noticed that sitting across from me was a yellow earth pony mare rocking her bundled foal back and forth.

“Is it a filly or a colt?” I asked, causing her to look up.

“A filly, she’s already a month old,” she replied, pride evident in her voice.

“She’s adorable! What’s her name?” I continued, leaning in to get a better look at the little filly held in her forelegs.

“Serene Skies, she’s a pegusas just like her father. She has his eyes.” She held out her napping daughter, an adorable light yellow foal with a short mane of gray and purple. “And she’s always so quiet whenever she’s sleeping; it’s just the cutest thing!”

“I can believe tha-“

I was cut off by the blowing of the train whistle, signifying that we would be departing from the station soon.

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!” The motherly mare and I both cringed as the previously slumbering bundle in her hooves burst into an earsplitting wail that would have given a windigo a run for its money. Everypony in the compartment turned toward the source of the noise, making the mother duck her head down in embarrassment as she tried to calm the bawling filly.

She was still doing just that when the train began rolling out of the station and for the rest of the trip as well. I tried blocking out the foal’s wails with my books, but was met with little success. Spike on the other hoof spent the trip gazing dreamily out the window, probably thinking about you-know-who doing I-don’t-want-to-know-what. I’m somewhat envious of my assistant’s draconic ability to disable his auditory fins (though I am rather tired of his “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you” excuse).

None too soon, the train pulled into Canterlot Station. While we were gathering our belongings, Spike, noticing my slightly frazzled state, cheerfully said to me;

“Hey, at least nothing could be worse than that, right?”

No sooner than he had said this, the doors to the train opened and unleashed a tidal wave of hooves and fur down upon us. Outbound passengers shoved anypony in their path out of the way to gain access to unoccupied seats. Spike and I became separated, pulled apart by the sea of bodies. The next thing I knew pain was breaking my head open as I was shoved roughly against the carriage wall by the overexcited boarders. Dazed, I sat down to prevent myself from falling over, content with letting the manic crowd froth and seethe around me.

I was startled from my stupor by the sudden screech of the train whistle, alerting me of the train’s impending departure from the station. Jumping up, I found that the crowd had moved me away from the carriage door, leaving me with a veritable wall of ponies in between me and the exit. Unable to teleport outside without accidentally bringing an unintended passenger along with me, I began pushing my way through the mass.

I progressed slowly, due to many of the passengers being resistant to the same treatment they themselves had dealt out. Though, any hesitancy I had with using my magic immediately dissipated when I saw that the door to which I was headed was being shut by a train attendant. My horn flared to life, lifting everypony between me and the exit into the air. Ignoring the multitude of protests coming from above, I broke into a full gallop for the door.

The train attendant, oblivious of my mad dash, slammed the door shut just as I neared her, and I, unable to stop at in time, smashed horn-first into the hard metal. Everypony held within the grasp of my magic immediately fell back upon the floor, as I, as anypony else would after suffering two consecutive head injuries, blacked out.

*****

The first thing I noticed as I regained consciousness was a steady thumping noise that shook whatever surface I was on. As I opened my eyes, a wave of nausea struck me, sending a strained moan out my throat.

“Oh dear, hold on a moment.” I heard clattering about and approaching hoofsteps before a reddish blob appeared in my vision, blending in with its blurry surroundings. Warmth seeped into my head, soothing the throbbing in my forehead. Blinking my eyes, the not-quite-red blob soon revealed itself to be a light-red colored unicorn nurse looking down upon me.

“There, that should help with the headache.” She said, extinguishing her horn.

Feeling a slight sense of déjà-vu, I lifted myself up, finding that I was between a bed and a blanket in what appeared to be a small nurse’s office.

“Excuse me miss, are we still on the train?” I asked, prompted by the still occurring thumping motion.

“Yes, you’re currently resting in the nurse’s station on board. One of the attendants saw you take a nasty hit to the head and brought you here for me to take care of you,” she said, frowning slightly as she looked me over. “Thankfully, you appear to have not suffered any serious injuries aside from a large bump on your forehead, and you should be able to get up and move around soon enough.”

I mulled over what she had said to me; I was on a train that I had no idea where its destination was; My parents are probably worried sick waiting at the station; For all I know, Spike could still be lost on – Spike! I had no idea where Spike was! Is he safe? Is he-

“Oh yes, excuse me miss? This scroll appeared by you while you were still unconscious,” the nurse said, levitating a rolled piece of parchment over to me.

Trying to grab it from her with my own magic, a searing pain burst through my head, centered around my horn.

“Oh my! I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you that you’re not supposed to use your magic for the next few hours. Your horn received some trauma and will need time to recuperate,” she said as I reached my hoof toward the parchment, “in fact, you should limit your use of it for a couple of-“

She was cut off as the compartment lurched upward, sending her sprawling on the floor. Another lurch followed right behind, not even giving her time to get up before sending her down again. A third occurred, and this time, various medicine cabinets lining the wall broke open and their contents sent flying out. Gauze, forceps, band-aids, tweezers, needles, test tubes, and scalpels rained down upon us as I pulled the blanket over me for protection.

I heard the nurse scream in pain, and to my confusion, I felt a pleasant feeling washed over me. I suppose it could be likened to the relief you feel when scratching an itch.

Eventually the sound of raining medical instruments stopped, and I peeked out from under the blanket. What I saw commandeered my gaze immediately. In the center of the room laid the nurse with multiple needles, forceps, scalpels, and shards of glass imbedded into her hide. Rivulets of crimson blood trickled down her body, contrasting with the pale light-rose of her fur. Watching them slowly stream down was almost like watching a painter at her craft, painting stroke by stroke.

My attention was still centered on the art form in the center of the room when the nurse started shifting around, having regained consciousness. She slowly began to lift herself up, only to fall down from the pain of moving pierced muscles. Twisting her head around, she searched the room, until finally spotting me sitting on the bed, staring back at her. The stricken nurse let out a request for help, or at least she tried to, but with a scalpel lodged in her throat, it only came out as an unintelligible gurgle. When I didn’t respond to her, she resumed trying to lift herself from the floor, and only succeeding in falling back down again.

The nurse kept at this, each failed attempt pumping the blood out of her body and onto her coat faster and faster. She soon began to grow weak from the loss of blood, each attempt an even greater struggle from the last, until she collapsed once again, and upon trying to stand up was only able to feebly shift her hooves.

She continued shifting her hooves around in a futile effort to lift herself, until she finally realized that she wouldn’t be able to get up and save herself. If she was in a clearer mind, she might’ve used her magic, but as most unicorns do when panicked, the nurse completely forgot about the existence of the horn on her head. Once again, she twisted her head around to look into my eyes, begging me to save her. I perceived a slight sense of satisfaction as I gazed down upon the blood-stained mare as she pleaded for me to rescue her. Her body went limp as her strength left her body with her blood, and like the vision of Scootaloo, her eyes glazed over as they stared into mine.

I gazed at the corpse of what once was a pony, looking over the instruments protruding from her body, glistening wet from her blood. The same blood that soaked her once light-pink coat crimson, pooling onto the floor around-

I was literally shaken from my reverie as the entire carriage began to vibrate, tossing me from the bed onto the floor. The equine pin-cushion was thrown about with me as I bounced from wall to roof to floor to wall again as the compartment became one indistinguishable blur.

“Miss! Stop shaking the patient at once, you’ll do more harm than good!”

The yell stopped the vicious shaking assault, and I flopped down onto my back. I found myself staring at the ceiling of the unfortunate nurse’s office as I heard the mare in question chide my unknown jostler.

“You could have seriously hurt her with what you were doing! She was already in a catatonic state; she didn’t need you jostling her like that!”

“I’m sorry! I saw you trying to wake her up and I got really worried,” the voice of my assaulter spoke up, “I only wanted to help!”

“Well next time leave it to-“the nurse was cut off as I pushed myself upright, eliciting a groan from my throat. Looking around the office, I saw that it was occupied also by the nurse and the mare I had sat across from on the way to Canterlot.

“Ba!” Looking down, I saw the mare’s filly sitting at the end of my hind-legs, busy gumming my tail.

“Ugh, what happ-“ I started asking, until I looked over to the nurse again, and the full weight of what I had imagined came crashing down on me.

“Trash can!” I blurted out, feeling the bile rise in my throat. The nurse, realizing what I was about to do, shoved a waste bin into my outstretched hooves.

After I had relieved myself the nurse took the waste bin out of my hooves, leaving me to flop back down on the bed. A sudden weight landed on my chest, forcing the air out of my lungs. Lifting my head up I regarded the pegusas foal as it clopped its front hooves together and giggled. I probably would’ve ‘awww’d at the sight if it weren’t for my current state of being.

The filly’s mother removed her daughter from the bed and apologized as the nurse came back with a cup of water, giving the mare the evil eye as she passed me the cup. Washing the acidic taste from my mouth, I thanked the nurse and asked her what had happened. She told me that she was about to hoof me the parchment, when all of a sudden my eyes gained this far-away look to them, and my outstretched hoof wouldn’t fall back to my side. I wouldn’t respond to any kind of outside stimuli, even the mother’s (another sideways glare) overzealous shaking. She asked me if I knew what caused it, and I, wanting to keep the vision a secret, responded that it was a condition I inherited from my parents. The nurse informed me that I could remain in the bed for the rest of the train ride if I so wished, hoofed me the rolled parchment, and after giving the mother one last sideways glare, returned to her desk.

I immediately unrolled it and found it to be a message from Spike. It read:

Dear Twilight,

Don’t worry, I’m safe at Aunt Velvet and Uncle Nightlight’s. They were waiting for us at the station when we got separated. They told me that the Vanhoofer vacation season was early this year, that’s why there was that big crowd at the station. I’ll wait at their house for you to get back before we head to the Royal Canterlot Library.

Sinessins Love, Spike

“Um, excuse me.”

I looked up as the mother addressed me. When she got my attention, she nervously shifted her back hooves before meeting my gaze. “You see-“

“Don’t worry about it, it’s okay, no harm done.” I interrupted, anticipating what she was going to say.

“B-but, I could’ve hurt you, didn’t you hear the nurse?” She stammered out, thrown off guard by my preemptive answering.

“Yes, I heard her, but I’m no worse for the wear.” ‘Now that’s a big lie’ I thought. “So no need to feel bad about it.”

“Well, I still feel bad about it,” she responded. The mare paused, thinking.

“Do you have any place to stay while in Vanhoofer?”

“Ah, no. I was supposed to get off at Canterlot, but I was trapped here by the outbound tourists.”

At this statement, the mare brightened up. “Well, you can stay with me for the night, I’m actually moving to Vanhoofer. I’ll be staying with some relatives up there until I get situated, and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind housing one more for just one evening.”

“Thank you miss, my name’s Twilight Sparkle, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you Twilight, no need to call me miss, I’m Citrine Dust.”

Relieved, I laid back, going over the latest vision in my mind: ‘What caused this one?’ ‘Why did it occur now?’ ‘Could the physical trauma to my head have triggered it?’ ‘Why do they both involve death?’

“GAH! I DON’T KNOW, OKAY!” I shouted, startling Citrine and her foal from their game of peek-a-boo, much to the nurse’s relief.

“Don’t know what? I-if you don’t mind me asking, that is.” She said, pulling a near-perfect impersonation of Fluttershy by hiding behind her blueish mane.

“Oh, sorry, I was just thinking to myself, and accidentally replied out loud.”

“Ah, okay then.” She said, before turning back to her foal to continue their game.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why are you moving to Vanhoofer anyway? I asked, deciding to take my mind off questions I wasn’t able to solve at the moment.

“Well, I’ve been wanting to be closer to family for a while now," the mother said, turning back to me. "And my husband got a job offering as weather manager in Vanhoofer, so we decided it was best to…”

We chatted for a couple more hours, until the nurse told us that the train would be arriving in less than an hour. I decided to get some rest while still on the train, and despite my fears of restlessness, I soon fell asleep…

Citrine woke me up when we pulled into the station, and presented me with my bags that I had assumed were lost. She told me that she and Serene had found them lying near where we sat, and the filly grabbed ahold of them and flew right to the nurse’s office, much to her mother’s distress. Thanking them once again, I set my bags upon my back, having remembered the nurse’s dictum, to not use my magic for the rest of the night.

As we trotted along through Vanhoofer, Citrine went into full tour guide mode, pointing out different attractions, interesting locales, and good restaurants to go to (she had grown up as a filly here). I was just content to follow along and marvel at the architecture and numerous gardens, anything to keep the hallucination out of my thoughts.

Soon enough, we reached the house of her relatives and I was introduced to the family. They were all very welcoming and understanding of my circumstances (apparently there were always a few unintended passengers during tourist season). I ate dinner with Citrine’s family and got to meet her husband, after dinner and cleanup (they refused my attempts to help wash up) I informed them that I was tired and Citrine’s husband led me to my accommodations. After I thanked him, he dismissed himself and left me to my slumber.

*****

As you can guess, I did not immediately go to sleep, but instead began transcribing the day into the journal.

I had hoped that the vision would be a singular occurrence, but it seems that fate has decided otherwise. Today’s imaginings were just the same as Tuesday’s; there was no discernible transition from reality to fantasy, it contained horrifying imagery, I found myself unable to look away, and there were… odd emotions involved that shouldn’t have been felt. The only thing that separates this one from before is the location, the… victim, and how that unfortunate pony died. It’s the emotions that I experienced while in that state are what I fear the most. If this is some bizarre case of catatonia that’s happening to me, then why am I feeling these emotions? And why do I feel them at the most disturbing times!? I felt excited when Scootaloo realized I wouldn’t save her, I felt pleasure when the nurse screamed in pain, and I felt satisfied when she died! What kind of sickened pony does that!?

I’m not a pony like that, the only one I can think of that is twisted enough to imagine such monstrous events is King Sombra… oh no… It couldn’t be him couldn’t it? He was destroyed by the Crystal Heart, how could he be doing this to me? …Maybe it was the trap I set off at the bottom of the stairs- but I thought I solved it. Could this be an after-effect that waited a few months before activating?

Gragh, I don’t know, all this wondering only complicates matters even more. I’m tired and it’s already far too late. I need sleep if I’m going to get to Canterlot in the afternoon - the train ride lasts six hours - I can’t get the answers right now, and fretting over them is doing nothing for me.

Goodnight and signing off,
Twilight Sparkle